In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” by Marquez, the author uses the binary of dreams vs. reality to describe the society and religious culture of the people of Latin America. The story begins with a rainy day where Pelayo and his wife find an old man with wings that fell with the rain. The two determine that this man must be an angel and as soon as the town people hear of this they come to see it for themselves. When they people see this, they all believe that it is an angel except for the priest because this old man does not look like the typical angel. The people all try to get the angel to complete miracles for them. This shows that the culture of Latin America has a lot of faith in their religion and they actually believe that the angel is capable of completing these miracles.
Later in the story a spider appears and the girls explains that she had disobeyed her parents and she was turned into a giant spider. This is a way to show the strict households in Latin America in a very unrealistic fashion. Children in this culture are supposed to listen and obey their parents in all situations and consequences will occur if the children do not follow the rules.
These two “magical” creatures that appear in this story do a great job of showing the religious and family culture of Latin America. The people in this culture are very religious because they believe in the angel; however the priest not believing in the angel simply because of his looks shows the corruption in the church. Also, the giant spider shows the respect the children are supposed to show for their elders at all times.
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